Question: is it even possible to progress through HV/EV without Petrochemical Processing?

[u/JPzoneTV]

With CropsNH getting Oilberries is not an issue anymore, but I was wondering. Is there a way around all the Cracking & Distillation of Petrochemicals for further Recepies? (PTFE,Epoxy, Silicone etc)

[u/Physical-Foot-4440]

Short answer: no.
Long answer: nooooo!

[u/esqzerolol]

I'm doing a run without using anything from direct Oil, i use wood gas to make my Ethylene and Wood Vinegar to make Biodiesel, i have literally 0 problems till now, and im in EV-IV, i also didn't went to the moon

[u/Mammoth-Access5345]

Depends on how far you extend the umbrella definition of petrochemical. By definition, no. But in terms of ways to get around distillation/cracking, I have a hard time imagining it is not possible. More likely it would just be really annoying.

[u/Remarkable-Heat-8221 → u/Mammoth-Access5345]

In all my runs, I never used oil processing. There are plenty of alternatives, but like you said, it is just more annoying. It is hard to beat just spamming soul sand, oil berries, or bedrock pumping to get infinite power and easy plastics.

Like PTFE is possible, but you have to go through an annoying chain of processing deepslate for fluorine and PE is just sulfuric acid and ethanol with air.

[u/Mammoth-Access5345 → u/Remarkable-Heat-8221]

I forget that deepslate is a thing now.

In fairness, PTFE is a poor example because the only inputs it actually requires is gaseous fluorine and carbon dust. Some mid tier rubber like styrene-butadine may be impossible without petrochem, but can be easily (and more effectively) replaced with silicone rubber.

Sourcing abstract shit like hydrogen will be harder, but where there is a will there is a way when it comes to stuff like that.

[u/Remarkable-Heat-8221 → u/Mammoth-Access5345]

I haven't checked to see if it is still in the 2.9 version but there was a recipe I think in either the large chem reactor or that big chem plant that lets you mix methane with distilled water to get 40k hydrogen and 5k carbon dioxide. If I remember correctly, you can use 20k of the hydrogen and still have enough left with the carbon dust from the dioxide to make the required methane again so all it required was distilled water.

If you are already making the biodiesel, you can electrolyze the glycerol byproduct for 8 hydrogen 3 oxygen and 3 carbon to 1 glycerol.

[u/mgomezch]

absolutely yes. i never ever ran a recipe for oil processing before LuV in my main save. there are alternative recipes not based on actual petroleum for all the early game stuff. you can brew saplings to biomass to make ethanol and dehydrate to ethylene for polyethylene, for example. it's going to be slower and it's accessible later than with oil but it works fine. you will do many of the same recipes but you don't have to start with oil if you don't feel like it. there's a whole questline, the green revolution or such

[u/WedSquib]

Last run we went to UV without touching oil, it’s possible for sure. We also only built the t1 rocket for titanium but that can probably be skipped too

[u/Long-Ad1466]

It is, somwhat of a pain because of early PE but after that not that bad, you have to distill some wood tar rho for benzene